“When we walked out that door, I was a married woman. I’m going back a widow.” – Patient thanks Nottingham Hospitals for her treatment after a life-changing accident. | Latest news

• Wife becomes a widow after tragic car accident 
• Praises NUH staff for care after multiple injuries
• Recognises what NRC facility will mean to patients like her.

A mother, grandmother and midwife at Queen’s Medical Centre (QMC) has thanked the team who saved her life and are supporting her rehabilitation journey after her life changed forever in a freak car accident.

Sonia Meakin, from Spondon, and her husband, Mark, were driving on the M1 motorway to meet friends for dinner when Mark suddenly felt strange and passed out at the wheel. It was later found he had suffered a heart attack.

Sonia said: “I looked across at Mark, and he had slumped over, his eyes were shut, and the car was out of control with his foot like a dead weight on the accelerator.

“We were on a busy motorway on a Friday evening, and I was trying to steer from the passenger seat.”

Sonia managed to steer the car off the M1 carriageway and down the next slip road but couldn’t stop and was approaching the traffic lights and waiting cars.

She recalled: “Mark was still unresponsive, but I said to him ‘I think we are going to die. I love you.’

“I then spoke to my mum, who died 17 years ago, and pleaded with her to please let one of us survive so we can see the kids and the grandkids again. And then it went black.”

When Sonia woke up, she was being cut out of the car wreckage by emergency Fire and Rescue crews. She had sustained multiple injuries.

Sonia said: “I turned to my right and could see someone on the floor, and I felt sure it was Mark.

“I overheard voices saying, ‘We’ve been working on him for 45 minutes and there’s nothing’, and I knew it was Mark.”

Sonia was taken to QMC and wasn’t aware of how critical her injuries had been until she woke up from a coma in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) two weeks later.

The doctor who was in the emergency department (ED) that night came to visit her when she was conscious again and told her he couldn’t believe she was still here.

Sonia recalled: “He told me my injuries were so extensive. He said I was critical, but they knew what they had to do.”

“It’s thanks to these guys that I am still here, and I am going to make sure I live my life and make Mark proud.”

Sonia has been in hospital under the care of Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust since 11 July and has undergone 19 surgeries.

She said: “I have been stitched back together like a rag doll!”

“With determination I will do this, and I am working hard on my physio to get home to my family before Christmas.”

With the upcoming opening of the National Rehabilitation Centre (NRC), a wide variety of patients, including major trauma patients like Sonia, will now benefit from intensive rehabilitation, rather than just patients needing neurorehabilitation following a brain injury.

Although Sonia is determined to be home before the state-of-the-art NRC opens, she says patients will be so lucky to be given the all-round care they need in a purpose-built facility.

She said: “It’s so high tech and it has rooms with ensuites and beautiful views. Just that is massive for your mental health to not be in a room where you can’t see much.

“To be able to go and use the restaurant and cafés and have more social opportunities will be life changing.”

Nestled within a beautiful 365-acre countryside estate, the NRC offers patients access to a 5km trim trail, hand-cycle track, fishing lake, golf course, and tranquil views from every room. It is much more than just a building; it is a new national model for delivering clinical rehabilitation. Its ambition is to transform rehabilitation in the NHS and change lives across the country by helping more patients recover and regain their independence and maximum quality of life following a serious illness or injury.  

Javvad Haider, Head of Service at City Hospital’s Linden Lodge, who will be moving with his staff to the new facility, said: “The NRC represents a real step change for rehabilitation in the UK.

“It’s about giving people, like Sonia, the best possible chance to rebuild their lives after serious injury or illness.

“The NRC is more than a building, it’s a symbol of a new era in rehabilitation, where world-class care, research, and education come together to place the UK firmly on the global stage.”

Sonia is so grateful for the care she has received, not only at City Hospital but also in QMC where she pays particular thanks to ward C30 who organised for her husband, Mark’s, funeral to be transmitted live to her hospital bed.

After marking the first wedding anniversary without Mark, she acknowledged how hard it will be to finally go home.

She said: “I left our home on that day a happily married woman and when I return, I will be a widow. But I have the support of my family and together we have new memories to make.”